Commentary on pro-family issues in the media, politics and in the public square.

Thursday, August 29, 2013

What would MLK think about issues facing the black community today? Ben Carson has some thoughts.

With the 50th anniversary of Martin Luther King, Jr.'s famous civil rights speech at the Lincoln Memorial, a lot of articles are circulating on that speech, his civil rights efforts, and the state of civil rights today.
Ben Carson has written an article discussing issues facing the black community today, specifically black on black violence, family breakdown, and school drop out rates.

It is hard to believe that 50 years have elapsed since the famous “I have a dream speech” of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.
on the Mall in Washington. I was an 11-year-old child in Detroit
languishing in the midst of poverty, but very interested in the strides
that were being made in the civil rights movement.

I was the only
black kid in my seventh-grade class and over the previous two years had
risen from the bottom of the class to the top. My mother had forced us
to read, which had a profound positive effect on both my brother Curtis and myself. I was quite optimistic that things were getting better for black people in America.

If King
could be resurrected and see what was going on in America today, I
suspect he would be extraordinarily pleased by many of the things he
observed and disappointed by others. He, like almost everyone else,
would be thrilled to know that there was a two-term black president of
the United States of America and a black attorney general, as well as
many other high government officials, business executives and university
presidents.

Perhaps just as thrilling would be the sight of black
doctors, lawyers, airline pilots, construction foremen, news anchors,
school superintendents and almost any other position imaginable in
America. The fact that seeing blacks in such positions no longer raises
eyebrows is a testimony to the tremendous progress that has been made in
America over the last 50 years.

There are some areas, however,
where I suspect he might be less than thrilled. The epidemic of
black-on-black violent crime indicates that there has been a significant
deterioration of values in the black community. Not only are the lives
of their fellow blacks and others being devalued by street thugs, but
the lives of unborn babies are being destroyed in disproportionate
numbers in the black community.

There was a time when blacks were
justifiably angry that the larger community discounted their value, but
now, ironically, many members of the black community themselves place
little or no value on these precious lives that are snuffed out without
thought. I think King would be waging a crusade against the marginalization of black lives in America.

Another
area of great concern would be the fact that 73 percent of black babies
are born out of wedlock. When this occurs, in most cases the
educational pursuits of the mothers are terminated and the babies are
condemned to a life of poverty and deprivation, which makes them more
likely to end up in the penal system or the welfare system. This is a
burden not only for the black community but for the nation at large.

Although I believe King
would be very concerned for all parties in these tragedies, his
energies would be primarily channeled into an attempt to give these
young women the kind of self-esteem that would preclude their yielding
to the charms of individuals who really don’t care about them and are
only interested in their selfish pleasures.

King
was a huge advocate of education and would be horrified by the high
dropout rates in many inner-city high schools. He, like many others, was
vilified, beaten and jailed for trying to open the doors of education
to everyone, regardless of their race.

If he were alive today, he
would have to witness people turning their backs on those open doors and
choosing to pursue lives of crime or dependency. I do not believe he
would simply complain about these things, however.

Rather, he
would be raising funds to create programs that would show these young
people that they do have real choices that can greatly enhance the
quality of their lives.

Perhaps the biggest disappointment for King
would be the wholesale adoption of a victim mentality that makes people
feel that they are entitled to being cared for by others rather than
working tirelessly to create wealth and opportunities for their progeny...